Chinaâ€™s Alarming Efforts to Shape the Science and Technology Funding

Published By : 12 Mar 2015 |Published By : QYRESEARCH

The Science Minister of China said yesterday that the country plans to streamline its management of government research funds in order to receive more interest on scientific investment.

The national budget of China set for this year posits the central government’s increased spending activities on science and technology to 276 billion yuan. The Minister of Science and Technology said that the 2014 funding amounted to more than 254 billion yuan, i.e., HK$320 billion coming from the central government. The funding was wielded by government agencies. The system was unable to keep pace with the rapid growth in the sector.

The increase in China comes with the need to seek for restructure in economy. It plans to reduce the dependence on low-end manufacturing and motivate entrepreneurship.

There were more than 100 programs and 40 government departments involved in the management of scientific funds. Wan speaking at the annual parliamentary sessions in Beijing said that the government of the country would initially set up a cooperative departmental conference to identify the requirements, strategies, and set policies of science and technology.

However, specific projects would no longer be managed or supervised by the government agencies as that task would be delegated to different professional bodies.

Wan further said Beijing's Zhongguancun district’s interest to Silicon Valley was posing high growth in new technology companies. Today, China has more than 1,600 technology incubators and entrepreneurships that started a prairie fire.

China now has more than 1,000 organizations investing in new companies involved in science and technology. The venture capital exceeds 350 billion yuan and the country also has more than 660,000 effective invention patents, which are upped by 12 per cent from 2013.

Additionally, the State Council plans to launch an online crowd-funding campaign (pilot equity-based) and motivate the banking and financial institutions to cater to small time businesses. The government has pledged to provide an effective environment for private sector and entrepreneurships by reinforcing public services and lowering the entry barriers. It is also encouraging the scientists, college students, and engineers to start new businesses.